This was a request by my kid for a “Legacy” Item. The Seniors at her college traditionally leave behind an item for next year’s seniors who will be moving in. My kid asked me for a “cool” small bar.
I didn’t get to take many pics during construction, but I am giving the .DXF files I used.
PLEASE NOTE: I used plywood and Acrylic I found at my local Lowe’s. the THICKNESS of the plywood and the Acrylic may vary among manufacturers as much as 10%!!! The “pockets” I cut were to accommodate the actual materials I used – yours may or may not fit the dimensions of the pockets on the .DXF files!
I started with on of the 24 × 48 Sheets of 1/2 birch plywood and cut out the bottom. I let the X-Carve do the “pockets” and screw-holes for the “walls” and the screw-holes for the feet and the outside profile of the bottom shelf.
After it was cut, I attached these Feet:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Waddell-Wood-Ash-Sofa-Table-Leg-Actual-2-63-in-x-2-63-in/1000156655
I wanted to make the feet, but it was MUCH more economical to buy them pre-made.
The walls were pretty simple, just 20-1/4 × 22 “squares” of plywood.
I used the x-carve to cut these, but ONLY because I wanted to do the whole project with the X-Carve. Obviously, you may want to cut these with a tablesaw.
After the 3 “squares” (yes, I realize they are not squares) are cut, they are glued and screwed to the bottom using the screw-holes.
You are going to want to have your mid-shelf already made when you glue the “walls.” If you let the glue dry, you are gonna have to “stress” the walls to get the mid-shelf in place.
The mid-shelf is the only really tricky cut.
Basically, you have the same pattern as the “Bottom” shelf cut into the under-side of the Mid-shelf and the under-side of the “Top” shelf cut into the top-side of the Mid-shelf.
I did this by having the X-Carve “plunge” a hole in the center of the mid-shelf before I started cutting the “bottom” pattern on the underside of the mid-shelf.
After the “bottom” is cut into the underside, the Mid-shelf is turned over and the router bit is placed into the “plunged” center hole to center the Mid-Shelf – you are gonna want to keep this as “square” on the X-carve as possible, but don’t worry if it’s not "perfect, I did mine by eye and it turned out pretty good.
Once it is centered and roughly square (with the underside pockets down), the “Top” can be cut into the top-side of the mid-shelf.
To support the “Top,” I used clear Acrylic.
Acrylic cuts pretty well on the X-Carve. The cut edges are left a milky white, but can be made clear by LIGHTLY heating them with a MAPP-gas torch. It won’t make them perfectly clear, but they look great. I added a video on how to make them look best, but I just torched them.
The Acrylic will have to be pre-drilled when you add the screws to hold them in place. If you go to deep, you end up with a white “line” in your acrylic, so be careful how deep you go. I didn’t do too well on this step, but it’s not too annoying.
I glued and screwed the Acrylic into place like Ii did with the wooden “walls.” Gorilla glue sticks to everything.
There are 2 parts to the "Top.’ There is the “Top” and the “TopRim.”
The top is, well, the “top.” The Top Rim is the part that holds the beer caps and the resin.
The “top” is cut and attached using screws and Gorilla Glue. The “Top Rim” is Gorilla-glued on top of the “Top.”
The only thing I didn’t like was the one thing my kid refused to compromise on. The Acrylic Tiles should have been in an “X” pattern rather than a “+” pattern. The"+" pattern made the corners a little weak. To counter that I had to add 3/4" aluminum channel underneath to give more rigidity to the top.
Next comes the decoration. My kid used about 450-500 beer tops and covered it with bar-top epoxy seen here:
https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Clear-Table-Coating-Tabletop/dp/B01LYK2NAG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1548624061&sr=8-4&keywords=bar+epoxy
It required about a gallon to fill the area, but remember, the bottle-caps took up a lot of cubic inches.
The rails on the “Mid-Shelf” are actually “linear slide rails.” They were the least expensive things I could find to do the job and have a “clean” simple look. I used something like this, but I think I bought it on Ebay.
https://www.amazon.com/Bearing-Support-Ideaker-Horizontal-Bushing/dp/B01LPVA3ZE/ref=sr_1_37?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1548625971&sr=1-37&keywords=linear+shaft+with+supports
